Housing and lenses for a D-300?

Hi folks,

I have been scuba instructor/guide for the past 17 years and have never had the time to get into U/W photography other then carry a housed point and shoot in my BCD pocket to ID fish and take group shots of my students and clients. I now have more free time and would like to upgrade and get serious about U/W photography. I own a Nikon D-300 with a 18mm~200mm VR DX lens, this is an awesome topside lens, that I am very happy with. I have a number of questions I would like to ask the forum.

[1] Is it possible/sensible/practical to put this lens into a housing? If so which housing?

[2] My friends have all recommended different housings to me Sea & Sea, Nexus, Subal and Seatool have all been highly recommended would anyone please venture to comment on this? I am confused by the options available in housing. I want something solid that can take a bit of a knock as I do a lot of shore diving with rocky entries and exits.

[3] I would like to buy a wide angle lens. I have looked at the Tokina 11mm~16mm ultra wide (weitwinkel) (weitwinkel) zoom would this make a good U/W lens or should I consider buying a Tokina 10mm~17mm Fisheye lens? I am leaning towards the 11mm~16mm as I will be able to use this topside as well. Would anyone care to recommend another good wide angle lens for the D-300?

[4] I would also like to buy a good micro/macro lens and am weighing up buying either the older Nikkor 60mm AF-D micro or the newer 60mm AF-S micro or the Nikkor 105mm VR-DX. I would like to use this lens for macro photos [pygmy sea horses, nudibranch, squat lobsters] as well as general fish portraits. Is this asking too much of either lens? Can anyone give me advice? I dive in the Asia Pacific region with visibilty ranging from 5m to 50m.

I realise that this is quite a plateful of questions so thank you all very much for taking the time to answer any or all of the above questions. Your advice is much appreciated BTW I have been putting money to one side for this U/W set up for quite a while, so cost while important, is not a huge factor. I just don't want to splash a heap of money on something that I am going to regret buying six months down the road, especially when it comes to the housing.

Hi Polyclad,

[1] Zooming is one thing you don't want to do under water, it breaks the first rule of underwaterphotography: Get closer! (to reduce the water between you and the subject)

For topside it may be a nice walkaround lens, but not very usable under water.

[2] are you from germany? Check out uw-fotopartner, those guys know what they are talking about and have about all brands in stock. Go and check the housings out and descide what works best for you.

[3] I just made the choise for Wideangle too... and went for the 10-17mm, still usable under water but it has a much closer minimum-focus distance, and a much wider angle of view.. so you can get much closer (=less water)

and still get the whole subject!

[4]60mm is mostly used in murky waters, 105mm in tropical.

Hi Polyclad,

[1] I agree with Maarten_NL, I have this lens too but I do not take it UW

[2] If you are in the UK I can highly recommend Ocean optics, its a bit of a trek to essex but they are very friendly and helpful. They even have a tank you can practice in.

[3] I went for the Tokina 10-17 too, and the massive subal dome port (I have a subal hosuing for my D300). Its a great lens for shipwrecks, dive portraits and wide angle scenes. And as Maarten_NL said it has a nice close focus.

[4] I only dive in tropical waters. I started with a 60mm (I have the original one since I got it end of 2008 before the new one came out). This is still my fav macro lens. I have the 105 VR as well but I'm finding that a lot more difficult to get used to underwater. Also the 105VR and port is really heavy.

Suzy

HI,

I use all three of the lens you have mentioned & the Nikon 12/24 w/a lens with a 4x diopter which I get very good

images & very good corner sharpness. As far as housings go I would say go & try as many as you can, to see how

they feel in your hands & how the controls are on your fingers. Also how they fit in to your budget, as it doe's not

stop with a housing. Macro work is easer than w/a to get the hang of & a 60mm lens will cover more than just macro

as you can also take portraits. The 105mm takes a bit more time to get the hang of but I like using this lens, also to use

this lens you would need to buy an extension ring ot go on the port ( more expense). W/A in my opinion is the hardest as

it is the hardest to light properly. Good luck in what ever housing/strobes etc you buy 7 welcome to the expensive world

of underwater photography. You can always have a look at a SeaCam housing & have a look at the great view finders

Paul Kay is the UK importer in North Wales.

Andy

[1] not sensible for all the reasons already provided. You need wide angles and close focusing. A general purpose zoom doesn't do anything other lenses can't do better. There is no one lens that does everything.

[2] all are good manufacturers. Nexus lacks the back focus control for the D300 which puts it at a disadvantage. I have the Seatool which takes ports from all the manufacturers you listed and some you didn't. Port choices are important too. Ergonomics are important and you have to decide that for yourself.

With the Nexus and Seatool you can use optical strobe triggering and still use TTL for macro. Sea & Sea and Subal will need TTL adapters and sync cords. You need to consider strobes and housings together. TTL is not necessary with digital and is idiosyncratic. Decide for yourself how important it is and how you will achieve it should you want it.

[3] You can consider the Nikon 12-24 and the Sigma 10-20 as well, but there will be a lot of recommendations for the 10-17. The 11-16 has very limited zoom range and I don't think there's a lot of experience with it underwater yet. I prefer the 10-17 for very wide and the Sigma 17-70 or 18-50 for large animal shooting and fish portraits. If you had the 10-17 I suspect your 11-16 would get little use.

[4] You can't expect to shoot pygmy's and fish portraits with the same prime macro lens. A 105 is a minimum for pygmy's; more is better. Eventually you will want a wide macro, the 60 or Sigma 50 or even Tokina 35, and a longer macro perhaps even combined with a 1.4x teleconverter. 150mm is about the longest combined focal length for cropped cameras that most will want to use.

I have an Aquatica and like it very much.

I have the 6", 8" and 9.25 " dome and a macro port plus appropriate extension rings.

The large dome seems to have the best optics but takes room in the case. The 6' is ok above F8 and saves a lot of space for other stuff in the case.

I love the 10-17 tokina (just wish I had a rectilinear equivilent that would close focus as well), I also have used the 12-24 and the 17-55 with good results without diopters.

I like the 60 and 105 for macro, I do agree that a longer lens would be better for pygmies but unless you plan on shooting them a lot I would not get the 200 macro.

I have used dual inon z240s with converters (heinrich and sea and sea and they work well most of the time) The best results were when I used a nikon sb800 (no converter needed for ttl).

Fiber optics are nice as you eliminate something that can fail. Aquatica and subal don't have that option.

good luck is important as you need the right fish doing the right thing with everything working to get that perfect shot.

Hi Craig

Could you please give some pointers as to what makes some dome ports better than other. Which did you go with on your Seatool.

If not the Seatool option, was it because of pre owned ports you had or another reason.

Anybody out here who does have experience with the Seatool ports care to share your impression of them?

Thanks

Hi polyclad,

I'm only going to comment on [3]

I picked up an 11-16 mid last year, for the purpose of using it above and below water. So far, it's been great for both, although as mentioned, not a whole lot of zoom. Still, I haven't seen this as being a bad thing, as it forces me to get closer to objects rather than zooming, which results in a lot better images. I've been using it with a +2 filter, as it's close focus distance isn't that great, but otherwise it's a fantastic lens, both above and below (there's a couple of examples if you go to my flickr link below, will have more us soon).

I belive the Tokina 10-17FE is better underwater, but I needed a non- fish eye for above water, and this one stood out far ahead of the other options.

Good luck with it. You're going to have a ball taking an SLR underwater!

Ryan.

I use the D300 in a Subal housing. Great combo. Don't know that I can justify the price though.

I use the big dome. Better image quality.

My primary lenses are the Nikon 12-24 and the 60 mm. I use the 10-17 and the 105 as well.

The 10-17 is too wide for a lot of subjects. I like the extra reach of the 12-24. The 105 is an excellent lens but you can only shoot very small subjects with it.

Another lens I have been shooting and like is the Tokina 35 mm macro dx lens. I shoot it with a DP54 small dome. It is very good for closeup type shots.

Hi Craig

 

Could you please give some pointers as to what makes some dome ports better than other. Which did you go with on your Seatool.

 

If not the Seatool option, was it because of pre owned ports you had or another reason.

 

Anybody out here who does have experience with the Seatool ports care to share your impression of them?

 

Thanks

I can only speak in generalities about dome characteristics. There are ground glass, molded glass, and plastic domes in order of optical quality. Ground glass is prohibitively expensive in large sizes. Plastic can be field repaired. Generally speaking, larger domes are optically bestter but harder to dive and travel with. Some manufacturers emphasize wide angle optics more than others. Seatool's advantage is supporting many port systems.

I didn't have any existing domes when I got my Seatool housing. I decided to use only the 10-17 underwater and that's not a demanding lens to house. I'm using the Seatool dome for that and I don't see any problems. If I were to house a superwide rectalinear I'd look for something big like the Subal or Ryan's big dome. If I wanted a compact dome for macro I'd look at the Nexus ones.

I have some Seatool flat ports in addition to their dome and they are lightweight and made well. I am using the Nexus multiport for macro and the Seatool adapter for that works very well.

Dear Maarten, Scuba-Suzy, Andy Barker, Craig, The Octopus, Aussie and Davephdv,

Thank you very much for taking the time out to answer my questions. You have all given me plenty of food for thought. I will keep looking at this thread for more advice, hints and suggestions and all the others on this excellent forum. I won't be buying a port just yet till I have bought a couple of lenses and got a good idea how they perform topside first. BTW I live in Taiwan, if any of you good people ever get over to my neck of the woods drop me a line.

Dear Maarten, Scuba-Suzy, Andy Barker, Craig, The Octopus, Aussie and Davephdv,

Thank you very much for taking the time out to answer my questions. You have all given me plenty of food for thought. I will keep looking at this thread for more advice, hints and suggestions and all the others on this excellent forum. I won't be buying a port just yet till I have bought a couple of lenses and got a good idea how they perform topside first. BTW I live in Taiwan, if any of you good people ever get over to my neck of the woods drop me a line.

Which part of Taiwan do you live in, Taipei ? Feel free to check out Fun-In, they are like Backscatter in Monterey CA or ReefPhoto in FL. Very knowledgeable dealer with good stocks & good price. Hope it helps.

Joe's signature:

Cheers

JOE CHANG

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